Chapter 2403: Why...

Leonel left the region with a sharp look in his eyes after Mo'Lexi vanished once again. That killed intent she sensed was indeed from himself. He had released it far and wide, though a hint subtly through his Dream Force, so that she would sense it and return. His gamble was that she would interfere.

But now, more of his cards were being released one by one and he didn't believe that the woman he was meeting now was some amiable old lady.

The worst part of all of this was that even if he really did take Aina away and escape, something he was heavily considering, where would they go, exactly?

He doubted that humans were widely accepted in wider Existence. They were scourges that had been the tools of the God Beasts, and those that remained were usually only powerful due to some experimentation from that era. Ever since the fall of the Fawkes family, there really were no other human powers remaining that could hold up the sky.

He was surrounded from all sides by enemies and he couldn't even trust his own kind. It was the worst kind of situation to be in.

'Invalids... the seal... the demoness...'

His mind churned, trying to piece everything together. He was still missing some pieces, he knew he was. But he was running out of time to figure it out and options to explore to preserve his and Aina's lives.

Ultimately, he just wasn't strong enough. If he was as strong as his father, would any of this even be a worry?

Leonel took a breath and exhaled slowly.

He moved toward the next set of boxes he was set to deal with and he began to rush around with them, only one of his millions of minds was focused on the task while the others were focused on his body, trying to understand what was happening.

'I need more information. Maybe these boxes...'

This wasn't the first time Leonel had thought this. The trouble was the boxes themselves.

Each one of these crates were the size of small hills at worst, and huge mountains at best. And yet, each one was just constructed of a simple six sides. There was no extra reinforcement, no extra limbs, no nothing.

One of Leonel's fundamental tasks as a Crafter was understanding structural engineering like the back of his hand. At a certain size, even wooden crates would react no differently from cardboard boxes. They would collapse beneath their own weight without a doubt.

Whatever these crates were made of, and the links holding them together, was exceptionally strong. And, Leonel's Internal Sight couldn't penetrate them at all.

He assumed the reason they were so comfortable with him holding what was obviously a large well of wealth and importance was because these crates were nigh indestructible, and whatever was within was highly protected.

'That said...'

Leonel thought of an idea. It was a higher application of Dream Force than he had ever used before, but he felt that theoretically, it could be possible.

Why was it that Wise Star Order had warned him to be careful of his Scarlet Star Force? It was because it had a Life of its own, its Force had a certain signature that was ingrained into its very being, a signature that made it Scarlet Star Force.

In that case, all Forces had their own signatures, and their own "Life". That meant that they should have an imprint on the Second Dimension as well, and as such, enter the Dream Plane.

Leonel would normally be unable to enter the Dream Plane in a Complete World like this one. However, was that still the case now that he had become a Dream Sovereign?

Just like El'Rion had said, those with Sovereignty have a small smidgen of the Life State, the state above Impetus, within them.

Leonel continued running his errands, his body threatening to collapse under him, but he kept pushing, kept pressing.

'There!'

Leonel finally succeeded in sensing a hint of something, and it felt like a flash bang had gone off in his mind.

He collapsed, the enormous crater above him falling onto his body and crushing him.

Leonel coughed, but managed to slow the crates' descent with a pushup. He grit his teeth, pushing it back up.

The boom had caught a lot of attention, but the hangar was huge. No one managed to see much of anything but a mountain-sized crate moving down a meter and a half, which was nothing compared to its size.

Leonel felt dizzy and his mind held a heavy weight on it. That short glimpse had taken almost everything out of him. It wasn't just stepping into the Dream Plane, but rather that he was trying to peer into a layer even deeper.

Luckily, his memory was nigh infallible. Although it was just for the briefest of moments, he remembered everything.

The first thing he saw was actually a trio of things. Two balls of flaming red-gold and one of silver white.

He knew what they were immediately: his Innate Nodes. They burned particularly brightly, but this made sense. There was no purer form of a Force than its Pure Crystal or Innate Node form. Leonel even felt that if he could hold this state for a little longer, his ability to comprehend his Forces would improve dramatically.

The second thing he saw was a jumble of mangled Forces, ones that he assumed had to be his Lineage Factors and the pulls of affinity they had on him.

It seemed that so long as he saw through this layer of the Dream Plane, he might be able to tell a person's affinities at a single glance. He could even come to understand himself better.

Then there was the third thing.

It too was a mangled mess of Forces, but it was much larger and not quite clear in an instant. Even so, it reminded Leonel of something quite clearly, something he would never forget...

The Valiant Heart Zone.

Why did it remind him of the Valiant Heart Zone so much?

Why...

Why...

Leonel froze.